Matthew 19:3-9

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition

³ Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ ⁴ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female”, ⁵ and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? ⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ ⁸ He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’^[a]